A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The topics of physics and the universe have always intrigued me, but since studying them in general has little relevance to my everyday job, I always had difficulty making time to learn about them. I took my last physics course in my freshman year of college and since the only knowledge I learned about the universe came from Discovery channel shows. I liked this book because I felt more in tune about modern physics and the universe after reading it.

This book explains the history of physics, from the Greeks to Isac Newton to modern topics like relativity to string theory. It explains them all in a general sense, enough to grasp the mechanisms but it does not overwhelm the reader with details, as the author geared the book to the wider audience.

Some parts of the book mentioned the intentions of God when he created the universe, which I disliked. The notion of a higher power creating the universe only means we remain even farther away from knowing the true roots of the universe, for then the next obvious question is how was this higher power created? If the unified theory of physics ends up being associated with a creator’s intentions I would be gravely disappointed.

Overall, I got exactly what I wanted from this book: a concise overview of modern physics. I doubt I’ll find the time to delve deeper into the topic, but I’ll make sure to keep up-to-date with the current progress.